Miss America 2013 was Mallory Hagan, the fourth winner from New York. For the talent portion, she wore a latex rodeo outfit and performed a tap dance routine to James Brown’s “Get Up Offa That Thing.” (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)

Carlson, the winner of the pageant in 1989, was appointed Monday as the chair of the organization along with three past title holders to the board of directors in the wake of leaked emails that revealed personal insults about former pageant winners, including comments about Hagan’s personal appearance. CEO Sam Haskell and several other board members stepped down as a result.

The shout out in Hagan’s tweet to Brent Adams was referencing his decision to share those emails with Dick Clark productions earlier this year, which resulted in the company cutting ties with the pageant, according to the Los Angeles Times Tuesday.

“Everyone has been stunned by the events of the last several days, and this has not been easy for anyone who loves this program,” Carlson said Monday in a statement. “In the end, we all want a strong, relevant Miss America and we appreciate the existing board taking the steps necessary to quickly begin stabilizing the organization for the future.”

Last week, Hagan and past winners called the board’s plan to find new leadership “laughable” and insulting after they suggested existing members of the board would be part of a search committee to find new leaders.